Ice Storm

Ice Storm rolled in about 12hrs earlier than forecast. Roads weren't treated yet.
133 car pile up in Ft. Worth on I35. 6 dead, 65 hosipitalized so far. Still untangling the 1.5 mile long scene. Happened at 6am this morning.
Several other fatalities in the area. Hundreds and hundreds other accidents. One right at the entrance of our neighborhood. Bobtail truck slid into the field trying to slow down for turning traffic. Black ice is a bitch.

Geez. Sounds bad. Black ice is so dangerous. I let my son take my truck to work today, his car wouldn't be safe in the snow.
Woke up to 5" of snow , school closed. A week ago I slipped on the ice and most likely have a torn rotator in my left shoulder. Doctor said to give it two weeks and come in again.
I showed my wife how to run the snow blower and she was able to do the driveway and sidewalk. I felt kind of helpless just watching.
Saturday/Sunday we are getting the ice storm. Forecast is constantly changing as to ice or rain.

Supposed to be blizzard like conditions here on Sun/Mon...temps around 20. 30+mph winds and heavy snow.

Won't get above freezing until next Friday. Be a low of around 5 on Tuesday morning. Longest, coldest snap we've had around here in about 40yrs. Slight chance of more freezing rain tomorrow, but mostly snow now that the cold has settled in.

Hopefully, the shoulder is just a minor thing. Sucks being laid up

20min drive took us over an hour each way yesterday. Had to take the wife for a covid test so she can go back into work next week. Came back negative.

Ice is a bitch ! I feel for those in Texas..

The wind alone would make me slide yesterday...coasting, no foot on either pedal, and I would slide with each gust. Nothing worse than black ice with a fine layer of water on top if it.

Winter Storm Warning til Tuesday. Blizzard conditions Sun/Mon...low temps around 0.

Great times.

Sunday 2/14, noon...it's 17 and snowing...temps dropping, snow increasing. Gonna be a great day...

They shut our plant down for monday.
Doesn't happen often.

A balmy -8 this morning with 4" of snow. Sure wish I could get some of that global warming.

5 for a low this morning, 12 right now.

Rolling blackouts because the wind turbines froze. Be a tad below zero tonite, more snow on Wednesday, slow warmup after that. Might get above freezing on Friday.

We haven't seen the ice storms or low temps much. Yesterday my doors on the truck were frozen shut and I had to wait for the heat inside to defrost the doors. Lucky for remote start.
Low 30's today, up to 50 tomorrow. Crazy winter.

Jason,
Do you have a wood stove?

All electric here. More snow overnight, one more night in the teens, then warming to normal over the weekend.

Took our generator down to the inlaws yesterday. Roads finally were decent enough to drive on, barely. Took over an hour each way. 15 miles, 90% of the traffic lights were out, 99% gas stations closed, no power.

They have been without power 90% of the time. House was down to the 40's inside when we got there. They won't leave their damn cat, or take it with them. Brought them the gen, and 20 gallons of gas. They can run one heater at least.

Glad to hear you were able to get your inlaws some heat. We went for 8 days without power after Hurricane Sandy. First few days were okay, then it got cold. Wood stove helped a lot. Used the generator for the fridge and freezer and lights.
We are getting snow tonight and tomorrow. Probably on a couple of inches. Inland, they will get 8".
Good luck.

3 days off work so far.
1st shift cancelled, 2nd shift for tomorrow still to be determined. I'm curious how reducing nat gas consumption plays into the decision.

Read about one nuke plant going down and many well heads freezing up because they aren't built with appropriate insulation and heating components like the northern counterparts.

My first winter in middle TN hit -5* for a couple nights. The POS camper I was staying in only had one 1500W heater. Warmest room in the camper was 42-44*. Kitchen floor was below 30*, somewhat chilly. Wife was still in ohio and complaining about slow internet.

It was our coldest 3 day stretch ever recorded. Last real cd night is tonight, all sunshine and bbq's from here.

Had all week off due to weather.
There will be a lot of finger pointing but it's hard to plan for record setting events. Just think of all the push back if someone recommended installing heating units on the well heads, power plants, turbines etc 20 yrs ago. The would have(did) say it's a wasted expense.

One upgrade we are going to look into later is a buried 500 gallon propane tank and whole house genny.

I feel for ya Pup.
Those are cold temps even for a Yankee. We're just more accustomed to them.

Generac sales has been stellar with all the recent disaster likes California's ongoing wildfires. Sounds like the Texas freeze will put a temporary hurt on insurance companies.

I'm guessing gas prices will go through the roof. With the ice storms and snow, production will be down for a little while.

Ice storms are bad business, especially if you live in an area not equipped to deal with it. After reading what pup has gone through I won't gripe too much about the -28F mornings we've had.

Low 60's today, ice and snow is melted. Little muddy out.
Gonna work on the camper, adding a pair of new batteries.

De-Winterized the camper today. Flushed out the lines, no leaks. Made it thru fine. Loading up and heading out camping/wheeling on Thursday.
We never lost power or water here. Locked in on a 2yr contract on my electric rates, so that wild ass story on the news about 17k bills don't effect me. That got the people who pay market rate at the time and won't sign a contract. And at the peak of the shutdowns, it was about 10k per megawatt hr. Week before, same electricity was 23 bucks for the same amount. 99% of the time, they win. But when they lose, they lose it all.

Grocery stores are getting back to normal too. Trucks running again work wonders for that.

All that's left is finding, killing and eating that goddamn groundhog. And launching a counter strike on Canada for sending that mess this way.

I don't de-winterize my trailer until April. We still get hard freezes till May in some years. Usually Easter weekend is the first camping of the year.
This spring I will replace the battery and the 4 tires. Both 8 years old and still look good but they are Chinese and starting to show the dry rot. At 70mph you don't want a blowout.

Just getting back on.

Our water froze that Monday morning and didnt thaw until Friday afternoon. Lost power once on that Tuesday morning for an hour which was sceduled and that was it. Because my work place couldnt be heated I got off work all week with pay. All in all, we got off very lucky.

I spoke to Kyle from up near Dalhart and while our low here in Lubbock was -4 he said he got down to -21.

Read this article this morning and feel extreme rage at this rigged system.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/wall-street-profited-off-texas-blackouts/